A Reef in the Sky...scaper

[gofor100]

Looks nice!

So do you have any ideas on how you're going to hide some of the chords and/or the equipment (if that is the plan)?

 

[rogerwilco357]

nice pics , love the pic of the view outside your window .

 

[Acrotrdco]

Looks nice!

So do you have any ideas on how you're going to hide some of the chords and/or the equipment (if that is the plan)?

I've intended to leave the dosing pumps outside because there isn't enough room to put them in compartment inside the stand.

As for the cords of the MP10's, I'm just lazy and didn't have time to hide them, I'll probably route them behind the stand during x'mas weekend, so they won't have to stick out from the glass door.

nice pics , love the pic of the view outside your window .

Thanks

 

[Acrotrdco]

Time for some updates!

As you can see from the previous photos, the center section of my new tank has over 16" of water, so in order to get enough light to penetrate the water optics must be used, so I've ordered a set of optics.

The idea is to put lens on the center bulbs only, and leave the remaining bulbs alone, so there're still light for the sides.

This is what it looks like when you take away the reflector sheet:

This is the optics kit:

Installing lens on the center bulbs:

Completed!

This is what it looks like after installing the optics:

Compare with the previous appearance:

 

[Acrotrdco]

Now some photos of my SPS:

I've even made a short video, first time doing it so please don't mind its poor quality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMw_OC1_98o

 

[sahin]

Looking good man. My new tank is slowly being setup too. Yours looks well on its way. Now you just need to sit back and let it grow into a mature reef. :dance:

 

[SimonSKL]

Very nice, Howard! Great video of your corals too. Now that your new tank is much bigger, are you adding an additional 160W? It seems the ends are quite dark with the optic kit and lens.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Very nice, Howard! Great video of your corals too. Now that your new tank is much bigger, are you adding an additional 160W? It seems the ends are quite dark with the optic kit and lens.

Yeah Simon, I'm thinking of getting another 160w also with optics, because one 160w just doesn't seem to cover the entire tank, especially now fitted with optics.

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Very, very impressed with your tank. Love the design you've come up with for your stand - very creative use of the space you've got.

 

[Ancelot]

Thanks Simon
Hi Marc Yeap I've met both Andrew and Lawrence in person, they're some nice fellas.

Yep, they are great people! Hope to catch up with you and them soon! GOD, I want to go Hongkong! The place of many reefers' dreams!

Marc

 

[Acrotrdco]

Yep, they are great people! Hope to catch up with you and them soon! GOD, I want to go Hongkong! The place of many reefers' dreams!

Marc

Oh yeah we're so spoiled, with all these awesome colored SPS coming from SE Pacific regions.

I just spent like US$ 120 this weekend and bought 5 pieces SPS's, some featured in the photos above, and 4 of them are full colonies with the last one being a large frag from a staghorn colony.

So yeah, it's about US$25 per colony. :beer:

Very, very impressed with your tank. Love the design you've come up with for your stand - very creative use of the space you've got.

Thanks for your compliments, it's folks like you who make this community so friendly, feels like a big family

======================

My tank still hasn't fully stablized from the move 2 weeks ago, I've checked the parameters last night, everything seems to be along the norm except S.G. is a little on the high end, I'm going to add in some RO/DI water to slowly lower it back to 1.026.

p.s. that D-D true salinity refractometer is really awesome.

S.G. 1.028
Temp 25C (77F)
NO3 0 (API)
PO4 < 0.015 (Salifert)
KH 9-10 (API)
Mg ~1400 (Salifert)
Ca 440 (Salifert)

 

[Ancelot]

Oh yeah we're so spoiled, with all these awesome colored SPS coming from SE Pacific regions.

I just spent like US$ 120 this weekend and bought 5 pieces SPS's, some featured in the photos above, and 4 of them are full colonies with the last one being a large frag from a staghorn colony.

So yeah, it's about US$25 per colony. :beer:



Thanks for your compliments, it's folks like you who make this community so friendly, feels like a big family

======================

My tank still hasn't fully stablized from the move 2 weeks ago, I've checked the parameters last night, everything seems to be along the norm except S.G. is a little on the high end, I'm going to add in some RO/DI water to slowly lower it back to 1.026.

p.s. that D-D true salinity refractometer is really awesome.

S.G. 1.028
Temp 25C (77F)
NO3 0 (API)
PO4 < 0.015 (Salifert)
KH 9-10 (API)
Mg ~1400 (Salifert)
Ca 440 (Salifert)

wow price, almost same as what I get here, given for the low exchange rate for USD. In my country, sps colonies go for $35 (bali grade) - $80 (tongan/fiji/walt smith grade), and that's retail price in Singapore. Of course we get like premium prices for frags from reefers ranging $15-$160 per frag. I showed Lawrence some pics before of the sps sold and he too wowed because they were either too common with a hefty price tag or too exclusive with a cheap price tag! lol

however, on the hindsight, we do not get really psychedelic colours for our SPS. It's always that few species or colors that make it to our shores. So far, I have not seen a setosa or blue echinata! I have only seen loripes, milles, acros and alot of montis! Recently there was a tongan shipment. The montis that came in were of good colours. BUT THERE WERE ONLY 2 pieces! hah. talk about variety and exclusive! hehe In Singapore you can really become exclusive with one thing. lol so I do like HK in some sense. You all get really alot of sps and different colours! I do not mind paying a bit more for the colours and species.

Oh well, I think that can only be talked when I go to HongKong. lol

 

[Acrotrdco]

wow price, almost same as what I get here, given for the low exchange rate for USD. In my country, sps colonies go for $35 (bali grade) - $80 (tongan/fiji/walt smith grade), and that's retail price in Singapore. Of course we get like premium prices for frags from reefers ranging $15-$160 per frag. I showed Lawrence some pics before of the sps sold and he too wowed because they were either too common with a hefty price tag or too exclusive with a cheap price tag! lol

however, on the hindsight, we do not get really psychedelic colours for our SPS. It's always that few species or colors that make it to our shores. So far, I have not seen a setosa or blue echinata! I have only seen loripes, milles, acros and alot of montis! Recently there was a tongan shipment. The montis that came in were of good colours. BUT THERE WERE ONLY 2 pieces! hah. talk about variety and exclusive! hehe In Singapore you can really become exclusive with one thing. lol so I do like HK in some sense. You all get really alot of sps and different colours! I do not mind paying a bit more for the colours and species.

Oh well, I think that can only be talked when I go to HongKong. lol

Haha agreed.

We do get some really exotic colors SPS and LPS here, (see page 2 for those rainbow open brains), but it's not too common either, and you need to be in really good relationship with your LFS owners

If you do get a chance to visit HK, gimme a call, I'll go show you around town :beachbum:

 

[Ancelot]

Haha agreed.

We do get some really exotic colors SPS and LPS here, (see page 2 for those rainbow open brains), but it's not too common either, and you need to be in really good relationship with your LFS owners

If you do get a chance to visit HK, gimme a call, I'll go show you around town :beachbum:

hahaha, yeah those rainbow open brains are insane! i just wish Singapore has more of them

oh haha what's your email and mobile phone bro? I always msn and whatsapp lawrence aka disaster999 tho we have not officially met! lol

mine are squall_leo27@hotmail.com and +65 98571283

 

[Acrotrdco]

Marc check your PM - p.s. not a good idea to post your email / msn / phone on public, that's how I got over 500 spam emails a day these days. ;p

 

[The Escaped Ape]

Thanks for your compliments, it's folks like you who make this community so friendly, feels like a big family

Hey, we're like kids. Give us (eye) candy and we're lovely. :lmao:

BTW, I'm in Tokyo, not so far from you. Another great thing about RC is the sheer range of different places in the world represented.

 

[Acrotrdco]

Time for another update!

I've received my second fixture today! :celeb1:

It's having exactly the same configuration, using a mix of Semi LED and Cree LED to achieve the color I wanted, including full blue spectrum from 400nm all the way to 500nm, as well as a set of optics.

p.s. there's a typo in this sheet, it's 405nm violet not 503nm, 503 is cyan.

Since I want to keep both edges of my tank dimmer so I can keep ricordea's, acan's and scoly's, I didn't want to install the full set of lens, only the 5 groups in the middle for each fixture will have lens installed, the rest will be using only a flat protector (except the red bulb - color mixing isn't that great if no lens were used).

This is what it looks like after installing the optics kit and lens. Left one is the old one and right one is the new one.

First one goes in! I'm using a slower shutter speed so you can clearly see how the light penetrates through the water.

Second one goes in.

Now adjusting the right shutter speed, aperture and white balance, this is what it looks like (with the 8x 15w bulbs turned off):

And this is what it looks like with only blue. The cyan color from the Cree XP-E Blue is very obvious as you can see from the photo:

 

[gambitcobra]

AHH looks good! thank you for posting the color combos!

 

[sahin]

Looking MUCH better. It needed the 2nd pendant. Your tank already looks well on its way to looking like a 6 month setup.

 

[SimonSKL]

Very nice indeed, Howard! The light sure brings out the color of the corals in the second to last picture.